Fitness, Fellowship, & Faith
Men who have no trouble succeeding in their careers but have few, if any, close male friends now have a unique way to change that.
It’s called F3 —short for fitness, fellowship, and faith—a free, peer-led outdoor workout. Started in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2011, it has since spread to more than 5,000 regions in 46 states including Northlake which focuses on Northlake, Argyle, Justin, Lantana, and Bartonville.
F3 Northlake was started nearly three years ago by Matt Beaver and Matt Bowman after respectively moving to Harvest and Justin from St. Louis and Tennessee. Harvest resident Chris St. James joined shortly thereafter and for the past two years has been the Northlake region leader known as a Nantan.
Each region follows five key principles – free of charge, open to all men, held outdoors, peer led, and ends with a Circle of Trust. The COT part is not based on any religion but on believing in something bigger than the individual.
“The things we are trying to improve on, or affect, is what we call Sad Clown Disease, which is basically a lonely man who is not accelerating in his life. He’s just moving along, content with he has, maybe not as happy as he could be, maybe not as motivated as he could be,” Chris said. “What we find is there’s a lot of power in the second F, which is the fellowship aspect.”
After moving to Harvest from Houston in 2021, the 45-year-old Chris felt on an island not meeting other men and working out. Since joining F3 Northlake, he’s developed a network of buddies and his wife has done the same with wives of other men.
“It’s pretty much our whole social group now,” he said.
Under F3’s leadership concept, others oversee the fitness, fellowship, and faith aspects of the group.
“We want to turn men from only men to men who engage in fitness and who are becoming leaders in the community, leaders at work,” Chris said. “So, leadership is not just something that occurs because people stand out. It’s something we push forwards and encourage them to do even if they don’t want to do it.
“None of our leadership positions are permanent. Another of our core principles is we lead in a rotating fashion. For example, with me coming up on two years as a Nantan, it’s time for me to look to who I can hand it off to. We don’t have elections. We don’t have nominations. We just hand it off to people even to people who may not want to do it.
“It starts with leading a workout. Once they realize they can lead a group of men for 45 minutes they get some confidence and interested and excited in other ways and we ask them to step into other leadership positions.”
The region’s first workout was held at the farmhouse in Harvest and since has spread to two other locations in Harvest plus Argyle, Pecan Square, Canyon Falls, Justin, and Lantana. Each takes place at 5:30 am Monday through Fridays, and 6-7 am on Saturdays. Chris said each location typically has between five and 10 attendees, totaling 25-35 regionwide. The average age of participants is about 42, with participants ranging from their 20s to their 60s.
Typical workouts feature simple exercises. These include bear crawls, pushups, sit-ups, and anything else that can be done using a 35-40 pound cinderblock, like curls, military
presses, rifle carries – basically exercises, cardio, body weight, and burpees. Locations with stairs or monkey bars can incorporate them.
“We’re not the optimal fitness program,” Chris said. “We don’t have professional trainers. We don’t have perfect equipment. We don’t have perfect facilities. And so someone who is super into optimizing their fitness we might not be for them. But what we are for is to get outside, move, stay fit, and most importantly, come in contact with other guys every day.”
No registration or membership is required to attend workout sessions. Just show up and start making new friends while working out.
For more information including workout locations, visit: F3Northlake.com
